GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Samford men's basketball team battled with Furman tonight on the road in Southern Conference play. A slow offensive start and turnovers were too much to overcome for the Bulldogs as their late comeback came up just short 72-70. Samford falls to 17-5 and 7-2 in SoCon play with the defeat while Furman moves to 17-5 overall and 5-4 in league play.

The Bulldogs offense looked discombobulated from the jump as they committed 10 turnovers in the first half and mustered 25 points. They shot just 32 percent from the floor, 9-of-28 and 4-of-11 from three. Rylan Jones and Trey Fort were really the only ones to get their offensive game going as they scored nine and seven points respectively in the first 20 minutes of play. 

Defensively, the Bulldogs were beaten mostly by one man in the first half, as Nick Anderson scored 17 of the home side's 33 points as Samford trailed 33-25 at the break.

"Hard to win on the road in this league," said head coach Bucky McMillan. "We were tight enough. Didn't play with a sense of urgency early on defense and had ten turnovers on offense. Hard to win when you do that."

The Bulldogs have been a second half team, especially on the road this season in SoCon play. They came out of the gates strong to start the second half, cutting the lead down to three. The Bulldogs just had one too many three-minute scoring droughts on the night as Furman answered and extended their lead back to 12 points with 12 minutes left.

From that point on, the Bulldogs played their best basketball. Rylan Jones got aggressive offensively and scored 10 of his 19 points to bring Samford back into the game. For a second-straight game, Lukas Walls provided a spark off the bench as he has 10 points in the second half including an old school and one late to cut the deficit from five to two. 

The Bulldogs got two good looks late with threes from Jaden Brownell and Trey Fort as time expired but the Dogs ran out of time as they fell by two.

The offense was back to normal in the second half as Samford scored 45 points in the second half and used their pressure defense to force nine turnovers and create extra possessions. The Dogs hit on 18-of-34 shots from the field in the half but once again, Furman had one individual burn Samford as big man Cooper Bowser scored 18 of his 21 points in the second half and was a lob threat throughout.

At the halfway point in league play, the Bulldogs will sit in first place regardless of what happens in the ETSU vs. UNCG game tonight. Up next, the Bulldogs stay on the road and head to face The Citadel on Saturday. Samford won the previous matchup between the two sides 86-56 at the Pete Hanna Center on Jan. 1.



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